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Presentation of goods to Customs

The transport company or other transporter of the goods must submit a presentation notification for goods transported across the tax border, that is, between Åland and mainland Finland.

The transport company or other transporter of the goods must have  an EORI-number.

A presentation notification is not required

  • if the transport company has received information (e.g. the MRN of a declaration submitted to Customs) that a national tax border declaration has been submitted for the consignment or
  • if a customs declaration has been submitted for the consignment when the goods are imported across the tax border.

A presentation notification must be submitted

  • when the importer is going to submit a tax border declaration in two stages or
  • when the customer with a tax border number is going to submit a recapitulative statement.  
  • when the company transports its own goods across the tax border, if a national tax border declaration has not been submitted when the goods arrive across the tax border.

Submit the presentation notification as follows

Submit the declaration via the Customs Clearance Serviceor via message exchange. If you are a message declarant, use the message FI332, presentation notification.

Submit the notification, at the latest, when goods arrive across the tax border at an approved place of presentation. The place of presentation can be either the place of dispatch or the place of destination of the transport.

Approved places of presentation

According to regulation 10/2022 issued by Customs (available in Finnish and Swedish, link to Finnish), approved places of presentation include 

  • ports
  • airports
  • postal terminals
  • ports and quays for inter-island ferries.

The presentation notification must contain the following details

  • the name and EORI number of the submitter of the notification, i.e. the transport company
  • mode of transport
  • identification of means of transport
  • type of means of transport
  • previous document
    • select the previous document type “ZZZ” and enter the transport document number in the next field
  • location of goods
    • select type A and provide the address details of the place of presentation as the description
  • customs office of presentation
    • select the customs office code for Mariehamn Customs
  • additional information codes
    • select the additional information code “FIEVR – Presentation of goods at tax border”
    • select the additional information code “FISGN” and provide the tax border number as the description, if the goods were sold to a private individual and the seller has a tax border number

You need not provide warehouse details.


Transport of goods after the presentation notification

Transport companies can transport the goods from the place of presentation to the consignee after 30 minutes from when the presentation notification is submitted, unless Customs has sent a notification of a customs control to the Customs Clearance Service or for message declarants with Customs’ notification.

Postal consignments

Regarding postal consignments, the postal operator can hand over the possession of the goods to the VAT-registererd consignee, and no separate presentation is required. The postal operator makes an entry of the handover in the records it keeps for Customs.

You can authorise a representative to submit the notification on your behalf

The transport company responsible for the presentation notification can authorise a representative to submit the notification on its behalf.Suomi.fi e-Authorizations shall not be used for this authorisation; instead, e.g. a forwarding agreement is to be used

The document concerning the authorisation doesn’t need to be presented to Customs, unless Customs separately asks for it.

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